The dangers of the transfer window

"I like to think if you asked me a question about any player in the country I could give you a pretty good insight into what he is good at and what he is not good at, where he has been and what he has done."

It is not bragging or being big headed but a necessity of the job, especially when you are in charge at a club like the Bees.

The League Two side don't have much money and, as we move into the final week of the transfer window, Scott knows that they may not be able to turn down a good offer for one of his players.

The lessons are there from recent seasons. The Bees might have won promotion in 2006 but striker DJ Campbell was sold on the final day of that year's January transfer window. He left for Birmingham in a deal that netted Brentford £500,000 but the Bees had no time to replace him and struggled for goals after his departure (they netted 28 times in 18 games after he left). There are other cases of how last-minute deals have undermined lower league clubs. Chesterfield, for example, were hardly helped by the late sale of top scorer Caleb Folan to Wigan in 2007 and suffered relegation at the end of the season.

Scott's team are currently second in the table and hopeful of their first promotion in a decade. Not surprisingly, the 36-year-old is keen to keep his squad together and will be a lot happier when the window does close at 1700 GMT on Monday 2 February.

"I'm confident that unless an outrageous offer comes in the board will decline it," said Scott. "But you never know what is going to happen. You are on your toes because you might have to react very quickly - you might only have a day to bring someone in."

This explains why Scott, assistant manager Terry Bullivant and youth team boss Darren Sarll spend so much time watching other teams and monitoring players who one day they might try to sign.

"Even if we are not looking for a specific player we watch games so that if we are called upon to bring in a certain type we have a list that means we know who is roughly within our price range and who might fit in with our squad," Scott told me.

"We are always updating these lists. They detail players in every position - their size, strength, speed and whether they are good with their left or right foot."

"We always put a lot of homework in - at Brentford we cannot afford to make mistakes with signings," said Scott, who during his playing days was sold by Brentford to Oxford in January 2001 in an exercise designed to raise money. His fee was £75,000.

He will speak to former team-mates and managers to get an idea of a player's background, of whether they will fit in. What's more, Brentford often sign players from the non-league and Scott is looking for potential allied with a willingness to learn and develop.

"It is easy to watch players and see whether they are good but the hardest bit is making sure they are not going to disrupt the dressing room or not want to train properly, basically upset the whole equilibrium."

It is part of the reason why Scott is not in favour of the January transfer window. Hasty transfers take place and mistakes are made, with the unfortunate consequence that clubs are left saddled with unwanted players on long contracts. Clubs spring into life in the final week and "it becomes a free for all, the only people who win are the agents".

Scott also thinks the transfer window often works against lower league clubs because it restricts them from selling at other times of the season. Many sides have experienced financial difficulties but been unable to relieve the pressure by selling a player because the window is closed.

Do you agree with Scott?

Fan of the transfer window or not, Scott was busy last January, buying and selling as he remodelled the squad he inherited. The fact he cleared out players - seven left last January and he told several more before the end of the season that they could leave - freed up space for him to make well-considered early signings once the season had finished. This in turn gave his new-look squad longer to gel.

By that stage Scott had been handed a five-year contract - unusual in the lower leagues and a sign of the club's confidence in him. When news of the deal became public it generated a few headlines but the manager appears to have a good handle on the situation. He is quick to point out that severance in the event of a manger being sacked rarely covers the remainder of his deal - but chooses instead to see it as a sign that the club were looking for continuity.

Scott is the eighth permanent manager at Griffin Park this decade and in conversation he emphasises the need for stability and continuity.

"I have a lot of plans and not just at first-team level," said Scott. "It will take time and hopefully I will be here long enough to do that and Brentford will reap the rewards."

The Bees are surrounded by clubs with more money and a higher profile - Chelsea, Fulham and QPR to name a few - and Scott wants to ensure the Bees become attractive for talented young players who might not get a chance to play first-team football elsewhere.

"We need to promote a centre of excellence, get good people in and develop a style of coaching that we can carry through to the first team," said the Bees manager.

He talks enthusiastically about the prospect of a new stadium at Lionel Road but stresses the need for one focus across all areas at the club if they are to succeed.

I think a lot of what Scott says makes sense. He might be a young manager but he has a plan and a desire to succeed. He has always been interested in watching football, studying tactics and listening to people and their opinion on the games. The Bees boss is adamant that he will never think he has cracked it or become complacent and fall off the pace.

He has also mastered that art of evasion common to all good managers. When I asked Scott about the prospect of promotion he pointed out that Brentford ran out of gas last year and have a lot more to do this season before anything is actually accomplished. Brentford lost 2-0 at Macclesfield on Saturday and are clinging to second on goal difference. Scott is now focused on the next game and determined not to look too far ahead.

But at the same time I could not help but think that he will have a lot better idea about his team's prospects of promotion once the transfer window has closed next Monday.

Comment number 2.

Good blog Paul.As a supporter of a club, similarly sized to Brentford, with equally illustrious neighbours in Liverpool and Everton, I can sympathy with Andy Scott's view.Football success does not happen overnight and very few Managers who lay down long term plans ever get to see them reach fruition. Most fans just dont have the patience and they influence directors to constantly tamper with the leadership.All that happens is that a new manager comes in, assesses what he has and sends half the squad packing, usually at a loss, after getting a positive reaction (if he's lucky) in the initial weeks.The transfer window utterly fails the smaller clubs. One advantage of the old system was that should a club find itself in dire straits ( and that is looming this year) they could at least capitalise on their prize asset when they needed to. Now that option is closed directors have to grab any offer they get lest a) the player walks out for nothing at the end of his contract or b) they fail to forsee the difficult times ahead.As Scott points out, the closure of the window creates panic on both sides. The seller wants to get the business done and maybe find a replacement while the buyer get stung into paying a higher price that the player is worth. Who wins? The Agents!And just how many of these deadline day buys actually transform the buying club's fortunes? Very Few.Often it takes them months to settle in,and if they have not been getting a regular game at the previous club, then they are not match fit anyway. For the selling club as Scott points out it can ruin their season if no replacement is found in time.Sky and the Newspapers may love the transfer window but few inside the game like it at all. Surely under European employment law is it not a restriction on free movement of an individual anyway?Scrap it now!

Comment number 4.

I still can't see why there is a need to restrict player transfers. You end up with crazy situations like with Diarra's move to Real Madrid where the move was signed and sealed in early December but couldn't go through til January. If your going to permit agent activity 12 months of the year then you have to allow transfers for the same period.

Comment number 5.

As a Dagenham and Redbridge fan (who have - so far - hung onto all players and manager, which I hope continues, else it dents our promotion hopes). I have a real problem with the transfer window.

I am confused how this blatant restriction of trade is even legal - can you imagine if they suddenly said to all.... accountants (for want of an example!) that they couldn't employ anyone new in the first months of the tax year?

It puts pressure on the little clubs that need to sell - a club could over commit, want to sell the expensive player, and be forced to struggle on until the transfer window! That's disgraceful!

The only people who love this are those who "love the excitement of transfer deadline day" - however it encourages panic buys, abuses the littler clubs and (as the blog highlights) stops anyone replacing the players that they sell.

I always ponder how this stays legal - it truly confuses me.

Get rid ASAP and allow football to flourish properly!

People forget - IT IS A BUSINESS which happens to entertain - it's not JUST about the football anymore - clubs need ot be able to trade to stay afloat.

Makes you wonder, would the likes of Scarborough still be trading if this sort of thing wasn't in the game?

Comment number 7.

Transfer windows do serve a small benefit to smaller clubs in that bigger clubs know they only have a couple of days to force through a signing and cannot afford (in terms of time) to be rejected, and end up paying more than they actually want to in order to guarantee they get their man.

However there are a far greater number of negatives about the transfer window, as highlighted above, and also that the small clubs cannot use the money to replace players anyway.

In particular, my own team, which is a fairly big club in the grand scheme of things, is about to sell one of our top academy graduates aged 23 for £2million to Wigan. As the club rents the stadium, it has high running costs, and most supporters expect that not a penny of this £2million will actually be spent on a team challenging (probably unrealistically) for promotion to the top flight. So the small club loses its top player(s) in order to keep afloat, but ultimately this results in greater costs: the small club remains at their present level, or in the case of Chesterfield drops down, and the running costs end up increasing at gates decline, and the players left decrease in value, all culminating in a spiral of decline.

Comment number 8.

Gillingham may get hit like Brentford did. Villa are rumoured to be making a but of over 1mill for our star striker Jackson, which we cant really refuse. I hope if it does happen(which i dont want it to) there is time to try and sign Dickson from Charlton. Who has basically said he would join the Gills permanently and he is currently considering a loan offer despite higher clubs involved.

Comment number 9.

As a Burnley fan i undrstand exactly what its like to lose your players in the last week of the transfer window. Over the past four seasons we've lost 3 top goalscorers and a star midfield player. And with the club excelling in the league and cup this season, i fear that we may lose another of our star players over the next week.

Comment number 10.

I'm am really surprised at the amount of people that dislike the transfer window. If your club was in or around the relegation zone it is vital. If you are not having a good season it can be changed by the signings of a couple of good players in the window. Also what if many key players were injured over the first few months of the season and you already have a bare minimum squad? I think that it is very important to have the january transfer window.

Comment number 12.

#10 did make me think, is there a benefit to clubs in relegation fight? Suppose your team is near the bottom of the table. If there's no transfer window, would players clamor to get out and thus doom the club to relegation?

Comment number 13.

The January transfer window really needs to be abandoned. While it has us all on edge waiting for a big signing to rock English football, a-la Kaka, for our own clubs it really can be detrimental to our targets for the season.

I am pleased that the manager of my club, Billy Davies, is taking his time over transfers. He realises that in January you have to pay over the odds for players, regardless of their talent of lack of it. He is thoroughly assessing the squad he already has and is carefully negotiating with possibly targets, which is what we need after the likes of Megson, Kinnear and Platt bought players just looking for one last pay packet and ultimately failed.

Comment number 14.

There's another down side to the transfer window that I do not think has been mentioned thus far and that is the number of clubs panicking in december time...any manager worth his salt wants a chance to bring in his own players - in december we saw a number of clubs switch managers in order to give him a bit of time to assess his squad before the start of the transfer window.

I'm not a fan personally - individual leagues should be able to impose their own transfer windows like we used to have!!

Comment number 15.

A problem I have with the transfer window is when a problem has been identified with the team but players can't be replaced other than getting in loan signings (for a limited period) or uncontracted players. As an example, I support Leeds and at the start of the season we were playing really well, we seemed to have a strong defence that had got us to the play offs the previous season (automatic promotion with the actual points won). The transfer window closed and it slowly occured to everyone including McAllister that the defence was infact a total shambles even though we were one of the top scorers in the country in all competitions.With the window closed no new defenders were brought in other than the uncontracted Mansour Assoumani (who has just been released by us again), McAllister was sacked and Simon Grayson brought in. Grayson imediately brings in 2 defenders on loan (hopefully with a view to something more perminent) and we've got 3 wins from 4. Obviously the window isn't the be all and end all of the bad form of Leeds pre Grayson but its a huge contributing factor.

Comment number 18.

A gopherboy said, this was a defence that helped us go from -15 points to the playoff final, and there were no real concerns with it last season, the midfield and depth up front were seen to be the problem.

So it wasn't until after the window closed and the season started (and even then, not really until September/October) that it became apparent the defence needed improving drastically.

Unfortunately Gary Mac was impotent to act because of the window and it ultimately cost him his job. I was very much of the opinion that given the window to recruit some defenders, Mac would have turned things around.

Comment number 19.

#17As I said, the defence had gotten us to the play off final the previous season. We also only lost once in the 1st 2 months of the season. The loss of form in the defence wasn't completely apparent before the window closed. Even the loan window closes on 23rd Nov as well. Of course McAllisters coaching had something to do with the loss of form too but I think not being able to get in other good defenders was a contributing factor.

Comment number 20.

The one benefit for smaller clubs is they know that mid-season there is only a month opportunity for bigger clubs to poach their better players.

Like a fellow Gills fan said above we fear losing Simeon Jackson (though find it laughable he thinks Villa will make a bid for him even though he did well against them) but we know if we can hold out til next Monday we will have him for the rest of the season.

Also, clubs in the lower leagues can sign players on loan for 93 days outside of the transfer window, therefore its really only September & early Feb that clubs can't sign players if a need arises.

Comment number 22.

Sad to say but the transfer window probably causes more managerial sackings than any other factor? A manager may feel he needs to strengthen one or two positions in his team in order to change a run of bad results.

How often do we see the fans and board losing patience with the team and the manager well before the transfer window and the chance to fix things arrives? The manager is normally fired BEFORE the window opens with the excuse that this gives a chance for the new guy to get ready to use the transfer window to sort out the team!

Why not allow the current manager the same opportunity rather than firing him? Better yet why not allow the manager to fix the problems whenever he likes to instead?

For example Gary MacAllister was fired from Leeds United without being given a chance to sort out the team. If he had been allowed to make changes sooner I have little doubt that he would be still at Leeds.

How many other managers have befallen a similar fate and how many more will lose their jobs in the future due to a silly pointless system?

Comment number 23.

I wonder what the man who is eventually charged with the task of keeping Southampton in the Championship will make of the transfer window? He won't exactly have much time to do much business, providing of course he has any funds to spend.

Alot of the lower league managers that I have spoken to this season seem to be of the view that they should be allowed to buy and sell all season. Part of the reason is that they are in charge of clubs that can only afford to have a small squad and so they do not have cover in case of injury.

Comment number 24.

I understand the problems people have with the transfer window, but surely it has one key benefit to all clubs. How can a team concentrate on its season when its players are consistantly rumoured to be leaving the club?! At least come the end of this window, we all know the players the club has until the end of the season and they can get on with it without having to look over their shoulders for other clubs trying to buy their players?!

It also stops clubs like Man City buying players as soon as they have a good run of form. A fine example is Craig Bellamy who only played 20 odd games in one and a half seasons, only scored a few goals, but just because of a slightly good run of form in December Man City bought him for 10 times his true value! He will now spend the rest of the season on the bench whereas he could be playing first team football at West Ham!

The transfer window stops this happening all the time and forces managers to use what they have and actually prove themselves as good managers, not just somebody who can buy their way out of trouble!

Comment number 25.

With Southampton, they need to hire someone who has a vast knowledge of the English game at that level, as there's little time to work with so they need to hit the ground running. Someone who has worked with a lot of players in the game, and ideally has an understanding of Southampton's current squad.

If they make the wrong appointment, the man who comes in will make a series of knee-jerk signings which won't gel with the team in time to stop them going down and it will have had a detrimental effect on costs with wages.

Comment number 26.

It's to stop a club with money buying their way out of trouble right at the death.

What used to happen, is a "big" team, struggling in the relegation zone with just a couple of matches left - would go out and buy the best player from the teams just above them - thereby strengthening themselves and weakening their rivals - almost guaranteeing survival - or at least giving themselves an unfair advantage.

Everyone used to think at the time that this was grossly unfair. Hence the transfer window - which I would say is the lesser of two evils.

Comment number 28.

IF we didnt have the transfer window then the constant specualtion that is high during the window would be common throughout the whole of the season and it would be much easier for certain clubs to unsettle playaers they wanted to sign and it also means that contracts which are signed will be worth something for at leats an extra six months rather then the player signing an extension and then leaving a month later!

Comment number 29.

Non-league clubs often buy throughout the season. This can prove to be a disaster when you have about 50 different players over a season. That is why I think a window is probably best. Also all the transfers in the window have to be monitored and think of the work that would have to be done over the full season to do this. There would be far more transfers if there was no window. Is this always the best thing?

Comment number 30.

#26 The transfer 'window' exists because that is the system that operates in Europe and we end up following suit. The Premiership voted for it and the FA deemed that having done so the rule should apply to FL clubs as well.

The old transfer deadline was in early March and that was designed to stop teams buying themselves a trophy or a great escape-though it rarely happened that way. With 10 games still to go in most divisions one could hardly say clubs could buy themselves out of trouble.

It remains a restriction on trade and is opposed by virtually every League Manager, who would prefer to be able to deal throughout the season as the need arose until March.

Comment number 31.

Having a transfer window doesn't stop speculation, in some ways it makes it worse as it prolongs the speculation for weeks or months before reality kicks in and the transfers are allowed to happen. The transfer rumours started for January as soon as the previous window closed.

Some deals are already cut and dried way before a window opens so it is a bit of a farce really. If clubs feel the need to buy or sell then let them do it. This system worked for decades without a problem and gives everyone all the time they need to deal with any situation.

Its like the play-offs, its tinkering with the way things are done to generate intrigue and uncertainty.

Comment number 32.

I really don't see how points 15-19 blame the transfer window for getting McAllister the sack - why on earth would you not blame Gary McAllister? A terrible run of form, failure to strengthen the defence - at least one of these 3 loan signings was an 'emergency' loan, all that with probably the highest budget in the division!! Don't get me wrong - I'd have loved to see him stay and take Leeds to even lower depths - but at the end of the day the manager has to carry the can - especially as last season he failed to gain promotion given the massive head start that the detestable little one (who then jumped ship) gave them!

Comment number 34.

Having already explained why he hadn't strengthened the defence, I won't repeat myself.

The "terrible run of form" you mention was four defeats in a row, bad obviously but not the worst run in the world. It was sensationalised due to the unjust loss to Histon.

This "head start" you seem to think we had, you make it sound like we were top by about 20 points, when in fact after Poyet left the wheels were starting to come off, actually just before he left as well. Wise then oversaw a run not dissimilar to the "terrible" recent run. McAllister got our promotion campaign back on track and deserved credit for doing so, all this while playing some of the best football in the division.

It's already been said that it wasn't the transfer window alone which caused his departure, but it had a massive impact because he couldn't react.

Comment number 37.

It is part of the reason why Scott is not in favour of the January transfer window. Hasty transfers take place and mistakes are made, with the unfortunate consequence that clubs are left saddled with unwanted players on long contracts. Clubs spring into life in the final week and "it becomes a free for all, the only people who win are the agents".

Scott also thinks the transfer window often works against lower league clubs because it restricts them from selling at other times of the season. Many sides have experienced financial difficulties but been unable to relieve the pressure by selling a player because the window is closed.

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Utter nonsense as usual from traditionalists.

The transfer window is not the cause of panic and poor buys, that is charmen and managers who fail to do their research properly and plan accordingly. The same applies to having unwanted players on long contracts, this has always been the case, even before the transfer windows.

The only sympathy I have is when a small club is forced to sell a player at the last minute, realisticaaly they can not say no to £500k if they are a normal league 1 side.

Also if sides were managed properly then they would not be experiencing financial problems like those mentioned. Realistically how many clubs get themselves into financial problems that they could not have forseen 6 months earlier? None I would say.

Also remember that lower league club do have other avenues, they can loan players almost all year round regardless of transfer windows, so even a real injury crisis can be overcome.

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The seller wants to get the business done and maybe find a replacement while the buyer get stung into paying a higher price that the player is worth. Who wins? The Agents!

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so let me get this straight, the seller looses out because they are desperate to get deals done and take whatever they can get, the implication beign that they don't get enough for a player. Yet the buyer is desperate and pays more than a player is worth?

So simultaneously transfer deals happen where the buyer pays too much and the seller gets too little?

Do you realise how stupid you sound saying those things?

The agents will get the same regardless of whether the player moves in a transfer window or not. Each player can only move once a season so window or not they have the same oppertunity.

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As an example, I support Leeds and at the start of the season we were playing really well, we seemed to have a strong defence that had got us to the play offs the previous season (automatic promotion with the actual points won). The transfer window closed and it slowly occured to everyone including McAllister that the defence was infact a total shambles even though we were one of the top scorers in the country in all competitions.

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It slowly occurred? That's call poor management. It was no-ones fault but McAllister's that he did not strengthen the defence when he had the chance. All clubs have the same rules, deal with it and stop whinging.

The transfer window was extablished to try and get clubs to manage themselves better, too many were simply buying themselves out of trouble at the last minute for stupidly high amounts that if it fails can truly condemn a club to years of debt. It also allows the fans to connect more with a team and player if you know that they are not going to dissapear next week any week of the year.

And yes I mean the transfer window as established in Europe, I do realise that we only copied it because UEFA told us to but we had all seen the same thing happen in the UK ourselves as well.

As a system it can work well, however the people working within that system are amateurs. They are chairmen who behave as fans instead of CEOs and are just looking for excuses for their own failures by panning the window. Clubs would be no better off without it, in fact it would give the poorly run (but rich) ones more chance to wheel and deal themselves out of trouble.

Good managers and well run clubs can work perfectly well with the current system, it is notable that most of those who criticise it are from clubs that do not fit that description.

Comment number 40.

there was a comment somewhere that summed it all up. why does there have to be a transfer market only in summer and january? because what would happen if you were only allowed to buy food and all other stuff in normal life in these times. there isnt any such window on those things so shudnt be one in football

Comment number 41.

The thing you have to bear in mind with a club such as Brentford is that our playing budget for 08/09 is somewhere in the region of £1.2-1.5 million. That's it. Last year's accounts have just been published and the operating loss is half a million. Bear in mind also that our budget is probably top 4 in our division, so there are 20 other clubs running on less. It's easy for bigger clubs to shrug at the difference between paying £10m and £11m for a player they want but when you consider that that 'small' difference is 2/3s of our playing budget, you begin to appreciate the obstacles that smaller clubs face day in, day out. Clubs like Brentford, Rotherham and Morecambe simply cannot afford to make mistakes in the transfer window and when a situation such as the offer for DJ Campbell comes along, we can't say no. Ultimately, being so cash-strapped probably cost us promotion to the Championship. Once we'd have got there, even for a season or two, our operating losses and debts would have in all likelihood been drastically reduced. One and a half seasons later we were looking into the yawning abyss of non-league. I'm not sure if the transfer window needs to be scrapped or there need to be more protections or leniency for non-Premier League clubs, but clubs such as ours are often held to ransom whenever a gem is unearthed, often at the detriment of the remainder of our season.As for Andy Scott. He saved us from non-league and since being able to construct his own squad has worked wonders at Brentford. I have every confidence we'll go up and there's a distinct possibility of winning the league if we can remain consistent and get our few injured players back into our relatively small squad in time.

Comment number 42.

Non-league clubs often buy throughout the season. This can prove to be a disaster when you have about 50 different players over a season. That is why I think a window is probably best. Also all the transfers in the window have to be monitored and think of the work that would have to be done over the full season to do this. There would be far more transfers if there was no window. Is this always the best thing?

Comment number 43.

"there was a comment somewhere that summed it all up. why does there have to be a transfer market only in summer and january? because what would happen if you were only allowed to buy food and all other stuff in normal life in these times. there isnt any such window on those things so shudnt be one in football" I believe that was from sports news :)uk distributor.

About this blog

Hello, I'm Paul Fletcher and I mainly write about life in the Football League. I have a great enthusiasm for a whole range of sports and love to spread the word about the great game of rugby league. You can also follow me on Twitter.

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